Syracuse, NY – The Thanksgiving drive to grandma’s house could take less gas money than it would have a month ago, but as of today will cost about 45 cents a gallon more than last year.

A gallon of regular was going for $3.529 on average this morning in the Syracuse area, according to the SyracuseGasPrices.com monitoring service. That was 3.7 cents lower than last Monday’s average and down 7.9 cents from a month ago, the website reported.

Gas hasn’t been this low around Syracuse since the end of February, according to SyracuseGasPrices.com.

But regular was nearly 50 cents a gallon cheaper at this time last year. The local average was $3.078 a gallon on Nov. 21, 2010, according to SyracuseGasPrices; AAA’s average was $3.089 a gallon heading into last Thanksgiving.

Most other parts of the country also are seeing gas prices fall, said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com.

That service, the parent of SyracuseGasPrices.com, reported a national average of $3.368 a gallon, down 11.1 cents per from last month but up 49.3 cents from a year ago.

The decline came despite a monthlong runup in crude oil prices that spiked Wednesday at just under $101 a barrel before falling back to $99.65.

New York’s average for regular was $3.645 this morning, down 7.8 cents from last month but up 50.6 cents from a year ago, AAA said. Albany-Schenectady-Troy, at $3.567 a gallon, was the only other of the eight New York metro areas tracked by AAA with an average below $3.60 a gallon. Motorists in New York City were paying $ 3.733 on average this morning, AAA said.